Douglas Adams on Evolution, Endangered Species, Conservation, and writing Last Chance to See

The brilliantly funny Douglas Adams shares the adventures he had while writing Last Chance to See. Since he gave this talk, the Yangtze River Dolphin has been declared extinct and only 123 Kakapo remain. Komodo dragons are now listed as vulnerable, and although their population appears quite large, it was recently discovered that Komodo dragons can reproduce via parthenogenesis (which produces only males) and that there may actually be only 350 breeding females.

I haven’t finished it by a long shot, but I just thought I’d throw in that komodo dragons are also venomous. Their oral flora isn’t anything special, and the sort of altruistic chaos that’s contingent with that idea doesn’t make much sense. Instead, they bite and follow the animal around until it dies.

‘Course, I’m pretty sure this talk was given before ’06 when that was published. But still. It’s awesome.